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Asoka Chakra, Chanakya and RAW

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I am holding off on sources until the release of the second edition of The India Doctrine. There you will be inundated with sources - mostly of Indian origin. I don't want to give too much away now so wait.

I am waiting with baited breath :tongue: Folks, I think this will be bigger than the US financial crisis !! :bounce: Time to sell your sell your stocks and batten down your hatches! The badshah of Bangladesh is coming to town
 
I think that this type of analysis was seriously lacking in Bangladesh and for this reason I decided to write The India Doctrine. While there was a lot of information dispersed in many places concerning Indian interference in Bangladesh there was no single comprehensive document or book to refer to. Using many sources I put together my chapters and other writers contributed ideas and experiences from their country. It is now up to policy makers to determine how to take on the Indian challenge.

Great. I think Sir that is the bigest favor you are doing to your country.
It dosnt matter whether someone from your rivals take it seriously or not, they believe it or not as such an analysis is more important for Bangladesh to counter and deal with these intellgence agencies who in the garb of allies are weakning Bangladesh.

:tup:
 
I am waiting with baited breath :tongue: Folks, I think this will be bigger than the US financial crisis !! :bounce: Time to sell your sell your stocks and batten down your hatches! The badshah of Bangladesh is coming to town

Better the badshah of Bangladesh than the naked faqir of India.
 
RULE OF THUMB -

Insult me expect a black eye.
 
RULE OF THUMB -

Insult me expect a black eye.

:) i believe you even dont need to reply such posts as your comments and information is enough to be called a big hit or slap ;)

So press Ignore

Now sir coming to the topic.
I need some more and specific information on communal riots in India and role of RAW in flaring up such things.
 
Dhaka smiles but deceives

In his interesting and informative book, The Jamdani Revolution: Politics, Personality and Civil Society in Bangladesh 1989-1992, Krishnan Srinivasan writes, "According to this (Rajiv Gandhi Government's) assessment, Ershad finds it a convenient policy to act in an anti-Indian manner while assuring us privately that he is not doing so, and he needs to do what he does because of his domestic compulsions. The Ministry (of External Affairs) does not have an answer on how to cope with Ershad. He has been clever enough to misguide the Indian leaders with promises of friendship and sincerity and they do not know how to fashion a policy to convince him that a favourable policy towards India is in his own best interest".

Mr Srinivasan should know. He was High Commissioner to Bangladesh from 1989 to 1992 and, thereafter, first a secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and then the Foreign Secretary. That, however, is not the only reason for quoting him. The conduct of the present caretaker Government in Bangladesh vis-à-vis India is hardly different from Gen HM Ershad's. In fact, it has been the same story with successive Governments in Bangladesh, except perhaps to some extent the one under Sheikh Hasina.

This will become clear on considering some striking facts. At the ninth meeting of the Home Secretaries of India and Bangladesh which ended on August 31, both countries agreed to act against their respective militant and insurgent outfits and leaders on the basis of the exchange of real time and actionable information, and reaffirmed their commitment not to allow their territories to be used for activity inimical to each other's interests. It also agreed to take steps against smuggling of arms, ammunitions, explosives and fake currency.

The Indian delegation, led by Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, and the Bangladeshi delegation, led by Home Secretary Abdul Karim, agreed to work out the modalities for expediting the verification process for the release of prisoners of one country held in the prisons of the other. Both sides agreed that there was a strong need to identify and bring to book racketeers engaged in human trafficking. The meeting agreed to enhance cooperation between the Narcotics Control Departments of the two countries. India's proposal for constructing a border fence made little progress. Nor was there any progress on the demarcation of 6.5 km of un-demarcated border between the two countries.

One can hardly be blamed if all this fills one with a weary feeling of déjà vu. A joint statement issued on August 4, 2007 at the end of the eighth meeting between the Home Secretaries of India and Bangladesh, again Mr Gupta and Mr Karim respectively, underlined the need for strengthening the existing bilateral arrangements by instituting new mechanisms for enhanced cooperation and regular exchange of information to combat terrorism. Also, both sides agreed to expedite bilateral attempts to combat international terrorism, organised crime and illegal drug trafficking.

Both delegations reiterated that the territory of either country would not be allowed to be used for terrorist and criminal activities against the other and agreed on the necessity for exchange of actionable information between security agencies of the two countries, in addition to existing mechanisms of information sharing between the Border Security Force and Bangladesh Rifles.

The Indian delegation repeated its request to Bangladesh to take deterrent action against Indian insurgent groups and their members operating from its soil, to act expeditiously on red corner notices through enhanced interaction between the Interpol designated points. The Bangladesh delegation noted the request. India wanted an early response on its request to permit construction of fences within 150 yards of the border with Bangladesh, which would help in effective border management and checking movement of criminal elements and illegal migrants.

The difference in the case of the seventh round of talks between the Home Secretaries of the two countries related to the incumbents-Mr VK Duggal and Mr Safar Raj Hossain in the case of India and Bangladesh respectively -- and the duration of the talks, which lasted four days (ending on August 28, 2006) instead of two as in the eighth and ninth rounds. India and Bangladesh agreed to examine the possibility of quickly instituting a mechanism to combat terrorism and organised crime, emphasised the need for greater mutual vigilance and cooperation to prevent illegal movement of goods and people, flow of illicit drugs, narcotics, arms and explosives across the border and smuggling of fake currencies.

The reiteration of the same resolves in successive meetings between the Home Secretaries of the two countries shows how little Bangladesh has done to address India's pressing security concerns. A striking example is the lack of progress on New Delhi's request that Dhaka act against Indian rebel outfits operating from Bangladesh with the latter's active support. During the four-day talks between the BSF and BDR chiefs, which ended in Dhaka on August 31, 2006, the former gave the latter a list of 172 Indian insurgent camps or hideouts inside Bangladesh and a list of 103 militants, including the chairman and the 'chief of staff' of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom, Arabinda Rajkhowa and Paresh Baruah respectively. The BDR reiterated Bangladesh's familiar official line that no Indian insurgent camps existed in, and no Indian militant operated from, Bangladesh.

The caretaker Government has removed some of the pathologically anti-Indian elements from Bangladesh's Directorate-General of Force's Intelligence, which is a clone of Pakistan's ISI. Some of the other developments, however, are disconcerting. The notorious terrorist leader, Asadullah Al Galib, chief of the Ahle Hadith Andolan Bangladesh, which is umbilically linked with the Jamaat-ul Mujaheedin Bangladesh, was released from jail on August 29, 2008, following the grant of bail by the Bangladesh High Court. According to many, all case against him were deliberately diluted to ensure release. Nor has the financial empire of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, the fountainhead of terrorism in that country, been touched.

There is, besides, a growing feeling that election will not he held and the present Government will continue under one pretext or the other, or that the election will be manipulated to install a Government with a strong fundamentalist orientation. With Pakistan irrevocably set for Talibanisation and Nepal unsettled, India needs a carefully calibrated policy to deal with Bangladesh's increasing emergence as a staging ground of terrorist attacks against it.

dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=karlekar%2Fkarlekar192%2Etxt&writer=karlekar
 
It will be very difficult to establish proof of RAW's involvement in communal violence in India but the same conclusion may be reached by simple deduction. If we accept that RAW is a communal organization having virtually no Muslims within its ranks than it is likely that they have an inbuilt bias towards Hindu organizations and tend to overlook anti-Muslim violence and may even promote the same. If you study the anti-Muslim diatribes on websites like SAAG which is run by RAW than you may conclude that these are an incitement to violence against minorities. RAW has links to many media outlets which promotes prejudiced attitudes to Muslims and thereby provides the incentive for attacks on Muslims and other minorities.

In India, The Wages Of Distrust

By Sudha Ramachandran

15 November, 2006
Asia Times Online

BANGALORE - A recent media report has pointed out that Muslims have been kept out of some wings of India's intelligence apparatus. While the thin presence of Muslims in jobs and education is well known, their exclusion from government agencies by design is cause for concern. Not only is it a blot on the country's secular and pluralistic credentials but it has implications for India's security. It could be detracting from the quality of intelligence the agencies are gathering.

According to a report in leading newsmagazine Outlook, India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing,adheres to an "unwritten code" not to recruit Muslims. Right from its inception in the late 1960s, RAW, which has a 10,000-strong staff, "has avoided recruiting any Muslim officer". This is the case, too, with the National Technical Research Organization, the recently established technical-intelligence wing of RAW.

The report points out that Muslims and Sikhs are not deployed to protect India's VIPs, either. The Special Protection Group (SPG) that is in charge of protecting the prime minister avoids posting Muslims and Sikhs as bodyguards. The few Muslims and Sikhs who are in the SPG are deployed on administrative duties. There are no Muslims or Sikhs in the National Security Guard (or Black Cats), an elite counter-terrorism force that is also responsible for VIP protection.

While distrust of Muslims is long-standing, suspicion of Sikhs, who constitute less than 2% of India's population, can be traced back to the eruption of the Sikh militancy that raged through the 1980s and was aided by sections of the Sikh diaspora and Pakistan. In October 1984, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh guards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. The Sikh community came under a cloud and Sikhs were thereafter pulled off the personal security of prime ministers.

Sikh militancy has subsided, but Sikhs continue to be excluded from the personal security of the prime minister. Incidentally, India's current prime minister, Manmohan Singh, is himself a Sikh, as is Chief of Army Staff Joginder Jaswant Singh. Yet people from the Sikh community are not trusted to look after the prime minister's security.

It was Sikh officers in the police, the intelligence and the armed forces who ultimately defeated the Sikh militancy. There are lessons in that for India as it shrinks from recruiting Muslims.

Distrust of Muslims is far deeper and more widespread. They are kept out not just from bodyguard duties of India's top leaders but much more.

Muslims constitute 13.4% of India's 1.1-billion-strong population, but their presence in education and employment - both private sector and government - is nowhere near their population share. "From the administration and the police to the judiciary and the private sector, the invisible hands of prejudice, economic and educational inequality seem to have frozen the 'quota' for Muslims at 3-5%," observes Siddharth Varadarajan in The Hindu.

"For virtually every socio-economic marker of well-being, the Muslim is well below the national norm - not to speak of the level commensurate with her or his share of the national population - and the evidence suggests these inequalities are not decreasing over time."

The thin presence of Muslims in jobs and employment and their abysmal socio-economic status have often been blamed on their community's reluctance to become a part of the Indian mainstream. Muslims don't get jobs because they don't want to get educated, they don't want to work in government, is an argument often heard in India. Muslim clerics and politicians are often accused of keeping the community backward. And there is some truth in this argument.

But there is serious prejudice too against Muslims. And this prejudice is responsible for the reluctance of Hindus to rent houses to Muslims, to hire them or to trust them in "sensitive" positions.

In the eyes of many Hindus, no Muslim can ever truly belong to India. Muslims are seen as "outsiders", descendents of those who invaded India centuries ago. The partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan out of Muslim-majority areas has added to hostility against Muslims. Muslims in India are often regarded as pro-Pakistan and in recent years have been looked upon with suspicion as possible terrorists.

It is this perception that lies behind the reluctance to recruit Muslims into the security forces and the intelligence agencies.

It is estimated that the number of Muslims in India's 1.1-million-strong army is only about 29,000. Since 1947, there have been only three Muslim lieutenant-generals and only eight major-generals, out of several hundred, points out Omar Khalidi, author of Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India. This is the same number as that among Parsis and Jews, who are far smaller minorities in India.

"The reported exclusion of Muslims from RAW isn't a surprise," said a retired bureaucrat. "It is an extension of the systematic discrimination that Muslims in India encounter whether it is in education, jobs or accessing bank credit."

It appears that like RAW, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) - the agency responsible for domestic intelligence - was once reluctant to recruit Muslims. A change in its outlook came in the early 1990s when it decided to recruit Muslim officers. Today, the 12,000-strong IB has what has been termed "a handful" of Muslim officers.

Will RAW go the IB's way and open its doors to Muslims? Some RAW officials remain skeptical about the loyalty of Muslims. "How can they be trusted to represent and protect India's national interests when they are pro-Pakistan or when their loyalty to the community of Muslims the world over is greater than that to the country?" one RAW official asked this correspondent.

Other RAW operatives admit that questioning the willingness of Muslims to represent India's interests is unfair. They recognize that Muslims in the diplomatic corps have done a great job in representing the country's interests. They admit too that there are no doubts over the integrity and loyalty of Muslims in the Indian security forces. And they are willing to admit that Muslims in the IB played a big role in fighting the militancy in Kashmir.

There is growing awareness within RAW too that it needs Muslim officers not just because that is politically correct but because Muslims will be able to fill important gaps in India's world view.

"They might be in a better position to understand the Muslim mind and in gathering and interpreting intelligence from Muslim countries," said an RAW officer. With a major part of India's concerns today focused on the Muslim world, "Muslim officers in RAW would be an asset", he added.

The two obstacles in the way of RAW opening its doors to Muslims are the absence of clear direction on the matter from the country's political leadership and the inertia that has gripped the organization, preventing it from changing its old ways.

It appears that in 2000, when the government was revamping the security setup after the Kargil conflict, the need for recruiting Muslims came up. According to Outlook, a senior bureaucrat approached the then national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra, with the idea of recruiting Muslims into the organizations that were being set up. Mishra promised to look into it but nothing was done to take the suggestion forward.

Officials say a policy rethink on the issue of recruiting Muslims into RAW and deploying them as bodyguards to VIPs is "an enterprise fraught with risk". It requires someone to stick his neck out and make a bold decision.

"Since there is a possibility that such a decision could go horribly wrong, nobody wants to take the risk," said a Home Ministry official.

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.

Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.

In India, The Wages Of Distrust By Sudha Ramachandran

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

What this analysis misses is that RAW is probably excludes Muslims as it has an anti-Muslim agenda and part of its operations involve fomenting violence against minorities.
 
Last edited:
Secular India’s RAW exclusivly Hindu organzation- State funded Hindu goals

NEW YORK | RUPEE NEWS | August 10th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | The Indian intelligence agency is the only intelligence agency in the world that is made up exclusively of a certain types of Hindus. Normal and secular Hindus do not find the opportunity to grow in the organization. If however you are a Hinduvata, then doors begin to open for the candidate. Rupee News has published various articles on this notorious agency which recruits and trains people using ancient texts and scripture. Anatomy of Indian Intelligence Services and Alliances.

Dr. Munshi, Dr. Khan and others have been shedding light on these dark acts. Rupee News publishes these articles to make the world aware of the antics that are destroying countries. India admits to supporting LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka! Pakistan to continue to help Lanka crush the Tamil Tigers.

This is truly a Hindu terror organization dunded by the “secular” Rupeblic of India. After gobbling up Sikkim, intimidating Bhutan, interfereing in Mayanmar, attempting to take over Bangladesh, waging war in Nepal, perpetually attempting to destabilize Paksitan, the big thrust is against Sri Lanka.

* Understanding Nehru’s India Doctrine.
* Lanka Letter: RAW THE RASCAL by Prem Raj in Columbo.
*
* Anatomy of Indian Intelligence Services and Alliances
* RAW facts on South Asia- India fails to occupy countries.
* LTTE was created by India
* Indian sponsored Tamil terror in Sri Lanka continues unabated
* Lanka: Indian LTTE terrorists use youth as cannon fodder
* Lanka Letter: RAW THE RASCAL by Prem Raj in Columbo
* Pakistan Sri Lanka growing military alliance
* Growing Pakistan Sri Lanka ties
* India must destroy the LTTE now.

RAW Run by Hindus only

You can blame all of India’s intelligence fiascos mainly on Hindus, as the agencies don’t find Muslims or Sikhs fit to work for them. Noted educationist and former parliamentarian Humayun Kabir was known, among other things, for being a prominent Bengali politician who did not subscribe to the Muslim League’s vision of Pakistan. Instead, he chose secular India, rose to be the education secretary. Little did Kabir know that nearly fifty years later, one of his grandsons would not be inducted into RAW, India’s external intelligence agency. Reason: he was a Muslim.

The year was 2000. The NDA government was restructuring the Indian security apparatus following the Kargil war. Kabir’s grandson had been cleared for induction into the RAW’s air wing, the aviation research centre (ARC). From 1969 till today, the 10,000-strong RAW has avoided recruiting any Muslim officers. So has has NTRO, a critical arm of external intelligence.

He was found to be competent for the job and met all the required parameters. His interviewers were very impressed with him. They had no doubt that they had found their man.
But hours later the decision was reversed. The members of the selection board came to the view that there was a question mark on Kabir’s suitability for the job. He was a Muslim and the unwritten code within the agency was that Muslims could not be inducted it. That code vis-a-vis Muslims is still followed. From 1969 till today—RAW’s current staff strength is about 10,000—it has avoided recruiting any Muslim officer. Neither has the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a crucial arm of external intelligence. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) with 12,000 personnel has been a little more open. It has a handful of Muslim officers, the senior-most is a joint director.

Many intelligence officials say keeping Muslims out or minimally represented is unwise. Post-9/11 the Indian intelligence community has been tasked to keep its eyes and ears open to global Islamic terrorism. It is here that the presence of dedicated Muslim officers will add to the expertise and capabilities that an organisation like RAW requires. But, senior officers are quick to point out that this should be done not to appease the community. “We have to realise that by following the unwritten code we are denying

“The Muslim psyche can be baffling to a non-Muslim. He can never know all the nuances, have the feel for the culture.”A.S. Dulat, Former RAW chief a pool of talent that is readily available. We need bright, dynamic, intelligent operatives. Should we deny them an opportunity just because they are Muslims?” asks a senior official.
According to former RAW chief A.S. Dulat, appointing Muslims is not only necessary but also critical. He feels that only a Muslim is capable of understanding the psyche of the community. Says Dulat: “The Muslim psyche can be baffling to non-Muslims. However much a person claims to be in tune with what the community feels, he can never really know all the nuances. A Muslim, on the other hand, would have the feel for the language, the metaphor and the culture. If you have to know what is happening in Aligarh Muslim University or SIMI, a Muslim will be much better informed. And you cannot wish away the feeling of neglect, the hurt and the discrimination that the community feels. That too is something a Muslim would be able to understand better.”

Similarly, while dealing with intelligence inputs from Pakistan and Bangladesh, a Muslim could be far more effective. But officials point out that appointments should not label Muslim officers as Pakistani specialists. As Indians, their expertise can be deployed elsewhere too. The point they make is that efficient and qualified candidates should not be barred because of their religious identity.

As opposed to RAW, the IB, tasked with internal security, took a decision during the Narasimha Rao government to induct Muslim officers. Soon a couple of young IPS officers were taken in—one from the Uttar Pradesh cadre became the first inductees into the IB. Since then a few more appointments have taken place. According to official feedback, the performance of Muslim officers has never been under question.

In fact, some of them went on to hold senior positions and one officer has risen to the rank of joint director presently handling a sensitive unit.
“There was some discussion within the IB before the doors were thrown open. The bottomline for us was that only merit would be the criterion. As intelligence officials our backgrounds are checked periodically. It applies to everyone irrespective of religious or ethnic identities,” a senior official told Outlook. Some of the Muslim officers proved to be a big asset in several anti-insurgency operations in J&K.

“Religion cannot be a criterion. India is a country of minorities, and this is the strength of the nation.” Jasjit Singh, Former Air Commodore “They could identify with the sensibilities of the Kashmiris and were much more sensitive in their approach which paid off in 1994-95 when militancy was at its height. In fact, these officers helped us counter the Pakistani propaganda that was dominant in the Kashmir valley during that time,” he adds.
Now several RAW officials agree a lack of Muslims in the organisation has created a void. They say a large
part of India’s strategic outlook covers countries in the Middle East and the Gulf which are primarily Islamic. “These have been traditionally weak areas for us and the induction of Muslim officers could help us. But, we have to also side-step the narrow vision of hiring Muslims in Islamic states and just look at them as professionals,” an official told Outlook.

Things could change if the present RAW chief, P.K. Hormese Tharakan, can push the case for a review of the recruitment policy. He has already embarked on an exercise to recruit talented manpower irrespective of religious or ethnic identity.

A senior retired naval admiral has been hired as a consultant for this task. However, a final decision on any change in the present position has to come from the government.
Soon after the task force on intelligence submitted its report to the NDA government in 2000, it began an exercise to revamp intelligence agencies. While new organisations were being set up, a senior bureaucrat approached the then

“Mishra said he would look into hiring Muslims but did nothing about it,” says a senior intelligence official. Brajesh Mishra, Former NSA national security advisor (NSA) Brajesh Mishra for guidance. “I asked him if we could induct Muslims into the organisations that were being set up. He promised us that he would look into it. I never heard from him after that,” he told Outlook.

The matter was taken up once again when J.N. Dixit took over as the NSA in the UPA government. Points out a bureaucrat: “He heard us out and gave instructions that there should be no discrimination on the basis of religion while recruiting competent officers. Days later he passed away and the instructions were not recorded on file and did not become official policy. So things continue to be the way they were.”

Recruiting Muslims into the intelligence agencies finds support from within the strategic community. Says Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, who was part of the committee set up to restructure Indian intelligence in 1998. “I would emphasise that religion must not be a criterion. We have had an eminent chief of air staff in Idrees Latif and Lt General Jameel was army commander of Eastern Command while Lt Gen Zaki was security advisor to the J&K government at a critical period of militancy in the early 1990s. India is a country of minorities, whether religious, ethnic, linguistic or caste. And this is the strength of the nation,” Those who argue for an all-inclusive policy based on merit like to remind the sceptics that it was Sikh officers and men who finally rooted out militancy in Punjab. Is the ’secular’ Indian state listening?

By Saikat Datta and Bhavna Vij-Aurora
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodna…;sid=1&pn=2


Secular India?s RAW exclusivly Hindu organzation- State funded Hindu goals - Bhutan - Zimbio
 
I am holding off on sources until the release of the second edition of The India Doctrine. There you will be inundated with sources - mostly of Indian origin. I don't want to give too much away now so wait.

Then make such post after that.
 
It will be very difficult to establish proof of RAW's involvement in communal violence in India but the same conclusion may be reached by simple deduction. If we accept that RAW is a communal organization having virtually no Muslims within its ranks than it is likely that they have an inbuilt bias towards Hindu organizations and tend to overlook anti-Muslim violence and may even promote the same. If you study the anti-Muslim diatribes on websites like SAAG which is run by RAW than you may conclude that these are an incitement to violence against minorities. RAW has links to many media outlets which promotes prejudiced attitudes to Muslims and thereby provides the incentive for attacks on Muslims and other minorities.

In India, The Wages Of Distrust

By Sudha Ramachandran

15 November, 2006
Asia Times Online

BANGALORE - A recent media report has pointed out that Muslims have been kept out of some wings of India's intelligence apparatus. While the thin presence of Muslims in jobs and education is well known, their exclusion from government agencies by design is cause for concern. Not only is it a blot on the country's secular and pluralistic credentials but it has implications for India's security. It could be detracting from the quality of intelligence the agencies are gathering.

According to a report in leading newsmagazine Outlook, India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing,adheres to an "unwritten code" not to recruit Muslims. Right from its inception in the late 1960s, RAW, which has a 10,000-strong staff, "has avoided recruiting any Muslim officer". This is the case, too, with the National Technical Research Organization, the recently established technical-intelligence wing of RAW.

The report points out that Muslims and Sikhs are not deployed to protect India's VIPs, either. The Special Protection Group (SPG) that is in charge of protecting the prime minister avoids posting Muslims and Sikhs as bodyguards. The few Muslims and Sikhs who are in the SPG are deployed on administrative duties. There are no Muslims or Sikhs in the National Security Guard (or Black Cats), an elite counter-terrorism force that is also responsible for VIP protection.

While distrust of Muslims is long-standing, suspicion of Sikhs, who constitute less than 2% of India's population, can be traced back to the eruption of the Sikh militancy that raged through the 1980s and was aided by sections of the Sikh diaspora and Pakistan. In October 1984, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh guards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh. The Sikh community came under a cloud and Sikhs were thereafter pulled off the personal security of prime ministers.

Sikh militancy has subsided, but Sikhs continue to be excluded from the personal security of the prime minister. Incidentally, India's current prime minister, Manmohan Singh, is himself a Sikh, as is Chief of Army Staff Joginder Jaswant Singh. Yet people from the Sikh community are not trusted to look after the prime minister's security.

It was Sikh officers in the police, the intelligence and the armed forces who ultimately defeated the Sikh militancy. There are lessons in that for India as it shrinks from recruiting Muslims.

Distrust of Muslims is far deeper and more widespread. They are kept out not just from bodyguard duties of India's top leaders but much more.

Muslims constitute 13.4% of India's 1.1-billion-strong population, but their presence in education and employment - both private sector and government - is nowhere near their population share. "From the administration and the police to the judiciary and the private sector, the invisible hands of prejudice, economic and educational inequality seem to have frozen the 'quota' for Muslims at 3-5%," observes Siddharth Varadarajan in The Hindu.

"For virtually every socio-economic marker of well-being, the Muslim is well below the national norm - not to speak of the level commensurate with her or his share of the national population - and the evidence suggests these inequalities are not decreasing over time."

The thin presence of Muslims in jobs and employment and their abysmal socio-economic status have often been blamed on their community's reluctance to become a part of the Indian mainstream. Muslims don't get jobs because they don't want to get educated, they don't want to work in government, is an argument often heard in India. Muslim clerics and politicians are often accused of keeping the community backward. And there is some truth in this argument.

But there is serious prejudice too against Muslims. And this prejudice is responsible for the reluctance of Hindus to rent houses to Muslims, to hire them or to trust them in "sensitive" positions.

In the eyes of many Hindus, no Muslim can ever truly belong to India. Muslims are seen as "outsiders", descendents of those who invaded India centuries ago. The partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan out of Muslim-majority areas has added to hostility against Muslims. Muslims in India are often regarded as pro-Pakistan and in recent years have been looked upon with suspicion as possible terrorists.

It is this perception that lies behind the reluctance to recruit Muslims into the security forces and the intelligence agencies.

It is estimated that the number of Muslims in India's 1.1-million-strong army is only about 29,000. Since 1947, there have been only three Muslim lieutenant-generals and only eight major-generals, out of several hundred, points out Omar Khalidi, author of Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India. This is the same number as that among Parsis and Jews, who are far smaller minorities in India.

"The reported exclusion of Muslims from RAW isn't a surprise," said a retired bureaucrat. "It is an extension of the systematic discrimination that Muslims in India encounter whether it is in education, jobs or accessing bank credit."

It appears that like RAW, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) - the agency responsible for domestic intelligence - was once reluctant to recruit Muslims. A change in its outlook came in the early 1990s when it decided to recruit Muslim officers. Today, the 12,000-strong IB has what has been termed "a handful" of Muslim officers.

Will RAW go the IB's way and open its doors to Muslims? Some RAW officials remain skeptical about the loyalty of Muslims. "How can they be trusted to represent and protect India's national interests when they are pro-Pakistan or when their loyalty to the community of Muslims the world over is greater than that to the country?" one RAW official asked this correspondent.

Other RAW operatives admit that questioning the willingness of Muslims to represent India's interests is unfair. They recognize that Muslims in the diplomatic corps have done a great job in representing the country's interests. They admit too that there are no doubts over the integrity and loyalty of Muslims in the Indian security forces. And they are willing to admit that Muslims in the IB played a big role in fighting the militancy in Kashmir.

There is growing awareness within RAW too that it needs Muslim officers not just because that is politically correct but because Muslims will be able to fill important gaps in India's world view.

"They might be in a better position to understand the Muslim mind and in gathering and interpreting intelligence from Muslim countries," said an RAW officer. With a major part of India's concerns today focused on the Muslim world, "Muslim officers in RAW would be an asset", he added.

The two obstacles in the way of RAW opening its doors to Muslims are the absence of clear direction on the matter from the country's political leadership and the inertia that has gripped the organization, preventing it from changing its old ways.

It appears that in 2000, when the government was revamping the security setup after the Kargil conflict, the need for recruiting Muslims came up. According to Outlook, a senior bureaucrat approached the then national security adviser, Brajesh Mishra, with the idea of recruiting Muslims into the organizations that were being set up. Mishra promised to look into it but nothing was done to take the suggestion forward.

Officials say a policy rethink on the issue of recruiting Muslims into RAW and deploying them as bodyguards to VIPs is "an enterprise fraught with risk". It requires someone to stick his neck out and make a bold decision.

"Since there is a possibility that such a decision could go horribly wrong, nobody wants to take the risk," said a Home Ministry official.

Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore.

Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd.

In India, The Wages Of Distrust By Sudha Ramachandran

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

What this analysis misses is that RAW is probably excludes Muslims as it has an anti-Muslim agenda and part of its operations involve fomenting violence against minorities.

RAW has its own selection process so whats your problem ? How does it affect you ?
 
History of hate

Post-Independence India is replete with examples of the participation of Hindu extremists in aggravating communal situations, targeting particular communities, and aiding and abetting riots. Those who have watched the organisation since its inception say that the ‘terrorism’ label may be modern, but the acts themselves, fundamentalist to the core, are decades old: making communally sensitive speeches that culminate in riots; leading religious processions in sensitive areas inhabited by Muslims and other minorities; and outright provocations leading people to engage in violence.

Rajeshwar Dayal, chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh at the time of Partition, provides in his 1999 memoirs A Life of Our Times details of another kind: damning evidence of RSS chief Golwalkar’s plans to conduct a pogrom against Muslims. Pyarelal Nayyar, Mohandas Gandhi’s secretary during those tumultuous times, adds to these accusations: “It was common knowledge that the RSS … had been behind the bulk of the killings in [Delhi] as also in various other parts of India.”

Contrary to the perception that the Sangh Parivar has gained momentum only since the 1990s, various commissions that have looked into communal riots since 1947 have gathered a significant body of evidence on the role of the RSS and affiliated organisations. The Reddy Commission, which in 1969 looked into rioting in Gujarat; the Justice Madon Commission, which analysed the riots in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra, in the early 1970s; the Justice Vithayathil Commission, which probed the 1971 Tellicherry riots – all of these provide solid details of the involvement of either the RSS or its mass political platform, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, in fomenting the trouble.

Justice Venugopal’s report, on the Kanyakumari riots of 1982, also severely indicted the RSS for its role in instigating riots against Christians. According to Justice Venugopal, the RSS methodology for provoking communal violence was as follows: rousing communal feelings in the majority community; deepening fear in the majority community; infiltrating into the state administration; training young people of the majority community in the use of weapons; and spreading rumours to widen communal splits. About the shakhas that the RSS organises under the rubric of physical training, Justice Venugopal said that the aim appeared to be “to inculcate an attitude of militancy and training for any kind of civil strife”.

It was only in 2004 that the Terrorism Research Centre (TRC), a US-based institute, declared the RSS a ‘terrorist organisation’, lumping it together with a host of jihadi and secessionist outfits, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Hizb ul-Mujahideen. This new listing came close on the heels of an internationally embarrassing incident for the Hindutva-wallahs, wherein Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was denied a visa to travel to the US. The two slaps in the face left the Sangh Parivar bosses seething (although it took more than eight months for the RSS to formally react to the TRC’s assessment). But this was not the first time that Hindutva organisations had earned international opprobrium. In 2002, secular activists in the US brought out a thoroughly researched report called “Funding Hate”. For the first time, this document exposed how funds collected in the US by the India Development and Relief Fund (the IDRF, an umbrella organisation floated by the Hindutva brigade) were directly sponsoring sectarian violence in India.
Islamic Research for Peace: Saffron/Hindu Extremist Terror
 
RAW has its own selection process so whats your problem ? How does it affect you ?

Pakistan has accused the Research and Analysis Wing of sponsoring sabotage in Punjab, where RAW is alleged to have supported the Seraiki movement, providing financial support to promote its activities in Pakistan and organizing an International Seraiki Conference in Delhi in November-December 1993. RAW has an extensive network of agents and anti-government elements within Pakistan, including dissident elements from various sectarian and ethnic groups of Sindh and Punjab. Published reports in Pakistan allege that as many as 35,000 RAW agents entered Pakistan between 1983-93, with 12,000 working in Sindh, 10,000 in Punjab, 8,000 in North West Frontier Province and 5000 in Balochistan.

RAW has a long history of activity in Bangladesh, supporting both secular forces and the area's Hindu minority. The involvement of RAW in East Pakistan is said to date from the 1960s, when RAW supported Mujibur Rahman, leading up to his general election victory in 1970. RAW also provided training and arms to the Bangladeshi freedom fighters known as Mukti Bahini. RAW's aid was instrumental in Bangladesh's gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The objectives of RAW include:

To monitor the political and military developments in adjoining countries, which have direct bearing on India's national security and in the formulation of its foreign policy.

To seek the control and limitation of the supply of military hardware to Pakistan, mostly from European countries, the USA and China.

Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] - India Intelligence Agencies
 
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